I'm torn on a language to dedicate myself to.
I'm 20 years old, and it's now or never to put a language in my tool kit.
>French:
My father and some family live in Toronto, Canada, and I have taken 3 years of French in high school. I'd have a bit of a head start learning it. Though, I do not love French that much. I wouldn't really want to go to France ever, and I don't find speaking French fun.
>Japanese:
I think its cool sounding and really different from English. I wouldn't get to use it much, though I could find places at my Uni. I would like visiting Japan, I think its pretty, idk about working there. Maybe. I'm a developer.
>Korean:
Isn't South Korea just the cooler Japan? I know they are more openly romantic, more American than Japan, with Japan being all about conformity and stuff, but besides that I don't know anything about Korea or have any reasons to learn it.
Maybe learn a language you have the most interest in and plan on using one day. I'm trying to learn Korean so when I go back next year.
Pic related
>>1061192
You can learn more than one language.
From what you've listed I would absolutely rule out Korean. You seem to have no real motivation or reason for speaking it. The only people who think South Korea is a cooler Japan would be... Koreans and maybe some Koreaboos. Japan is bigger, has more stuff do and see and is generally just more vibrant and culturally interesting than Korea. I have stayed in both countries for work and can tell you with confidence that this is the case. I like Korea, especially Korean food, but it is more bland than Japan. Korea is a great place to live, but it's not a good place to go on vacation. I'm not sure if I agree that Koreans are more openly romantic than Japanese. In both countries couples hold hands in public. Korean couples do often wear those stupid matching couple outfits, but I wouldn't call that more romantic, just silly. Japan is more sexually open than Korea, lacking Christian influence among other things.
I think between Japanese and French in your case I would pick Japanese. Japan has fallen behind in the tech industry since the focus switched from hardware to software, but there is still programming/development work available in Japan for foreigners who have the proper language ability. Japan is still the world's 3rd largest economy.
French is more useful from a traveling perspective, as it's used in multiple countries, but really you can speak French in France, Quebec, some African countries and Haiti. Whoopdie do.
BUT. The biggest plus side of French for you is your background in it. If you committed yourself, you could be conversational in a year or so. But if you don't like it or speaking it will become a chore and it will be hard for you to learn well.
I'd test out Japanese, and if you find you don't like it, stick out French. If you are not a full time language student and even more so living in Japan, competency in Japanese will most likely take you several years, as opposed to a year or so for French.
>>1061208
Clearly focusing on one is smarter.
>>1061192
Uhh dude Korea is all about conformity. I've traveled to both places and I've enjoyed both. My girlfriend needs her mothers permission to do everything and she's 23.
Korea has cheaper and better shopping. More plastic surgery. Better food in my opinion. kpop or kdramas if youre into that. Also if you play computer games like LoL they have PC bangs everywhere.
Japan is more open minded, cooler history, easier women to fuck. Much more polite. Expensive.And if you like video games and anime it's the place to be.
They both have heavy drinking cultures, they both like white Americans. Young people in both countries know some English. They both have attractive women but Korea's are taller and more likely to have a little face surgery.
I'd say go to both.
>>1061192
>I know they are more openly romantic, more American than Japan, with Japan being all about conformity and stuff
Koreans are probably a bit more Americaboo than Japanese (Americans helped them in the Korean war and dropped a couple atmoic bombs on Japan), but they are no more American than Japan really. About the same level. Both are modern democratic 1st world countries in Asia. Koreans enjoy eating silkworm larva and sit on the floor, etc.
Koreans are absolutely not American in their core thinking. American thinking is largely casual, self-determinant and based on judging people on their merits and living for today. None of these things are in the average Korean mindset. They are formal. They follow strict codes of hierarchy and seniority stemming from the Confucian Joseon dynasty that ruled Korea for hundreds of years. Koreans are VERY conformist. More so than even Japanese. I'm not sure where you got the idea they were less conformist than Japanese.
lets be real senpai, you wanna know korean for the kpop
Depends what are you aspiring but French is still required for many top jobs in the UK so I guess it would be the same thing in NA.
Japanese is not that useful but it's always nice to have an extra language, but only if you already master at least one other major European language (Spanish and French).
I know someone who knew English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He learned Japanese because he's a Japanese literature lover. His Japanese only got noticed during interviews because he already knew the other major languages.
Why not both French and Japanese? That would be good. One European language with an East Asian one seems like a winner combination.
In my personal case, I speak French, Spanish, English, and Mandarin Chinese. The language that always strikes first is Mandarin Chinese but that's because the job already expects you to have knowledge in French, and they would really like to have someone to know Russian or Mandarin Chinese.
>>1061192
You have no reason to study any of these, go with French.
>Isn't South Korea just the cooler Japan?
No. Just as Germany isn't the cooler France and Spain isn't the boring Italy. They're two different countries but they are being compared often by weeabo's who failed in Japan and had an even worse time in Korea and vice versa.
>idk about working there. Maybe
I lived in both and I speak Korean. To reach working proficiency in Korean you should plan for about 1.5 years of full time studies on location. You might reach conversational after a year of part-time, but unless being talented I would say both of these estimates are higher. I'll go ahead and estimate the same time for Japanese, on an objective level they will be just as difficult.
>Koreans/Japanese are more American
They are westernized which means they have Burger King and McDonalds. They also have H&M, Zara, Adidas, BMWs and most other brand name you'd expect to find at home.
You'll find that most are humble enough to at least pretend to care about your home country, no matter if you're European or American. There's also opposite cases but chances are you'll never understand it. Especially hate towards Americans seeing how USA bombed on of the countries and put a military base in the center of the other's capital.
Still. Your yellow fever is not going to motivate you to learn any of this. Go with French.
From a practically POV Spanish is the obvious choice. Opens a huge chunk of the planet up to you (particularly if you learn Portuguese at the same time).
>>1061192
Start with the one you have a basis at. Depending on how you learn languages you might have trouble going back.
Learn all of them though. There will never be a point in your life when you'll think 'Damn, I wish I knew fewer languages.'
>>1061334
Lol, Japan is pretty much objectively cooler and more interesting than Korea. Of course they are different countries, but it's possible for one country to be better/more interesting than another.
>>1061192
OP I was in remarkably the same position as you, even down to having significant french experience under my belt let me offer some advice:
Ignore the misguided advice about french (aka the class you probably only took because Japanese wasn't offered at the time/"I'm not a weeb") being easier, quit acting like you care about korean for any reason other than it being the runner up for your yellow fever and re-embrace that weaboo life you're pretending you got over within the past few years. Just take the damn Japanese class.
Nobody cares if you're a weeb and the most obnoxious people usually drop the class after the 2nd year.
"I'm considering maybe uprooting my life to move to this tiny country on the other side of the world eventually where i'll take a significant paycut because it's pretty"
Don't make me laugh!
If I were you, I would rather to choose French out of 3 choices you make.
Frence is still the language who has more speaker than any of 3 language, besides if you want to look for a job like in UNICEF or UNESCO, mastering French is more beneficial than if you learn Korean.
But personally speaking, because I love Japan very much, I will also learn Japan. lol, and I will rule of Korean.
>>1061502
Sure Davido Kun
